In the Clippers’ first two games, both wins, the team has leaned on Griffin to make plays late. Both nights, he drained huge free throws in the final minute. And Friday against the Lakers, Griffin scored eight points in eight fourth-quarter minutes, while Paul was scoreless.

“Besides the fact he scored 39 points, I think tonight was the kind of night where he really started to understand who he is and how good he is,” Paul said. “He demanded the ball. I think that was great. Anytime he posts and is like, ‘Bring it, bring it,’ it’s music to our ears. He deserves it.”

LOS ANGELES – With the team’s new owner attending his first game at Staples Center this season, the Clippers managed one of their best performances of the preseason, defeating the Phoenix Suns 108-105.

The team’s stars did their part to impress the new boss, with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin combining to score 69 of the Clippers' 108 points.

The Clippers' defense, which has been inconsistent all preseason, rebounded from a terrible first quarter to hold the Suns under 50 percent shooting. However, 42 trips to the free-throw line kept Phoenix in the game until the closing seconds, when Paul powered through his former pupil, Eric Bledsoe, for a big basket to put the Clippers up three.

With Jamal Crawford and DeAndre Jordan getting a scheduled night off, and Jordan Farmar (back) and Glen Davis (groin) out with injuries, opportunities were everywhere for players to step up, but questions about the supporting cast persisted.

Matt Barnes' struggles continued (0-for-5), Spencer Hawes struggled to find his stroke outside the paint, and Hedo Turkoglu was the only bench player to sink more than one shot.

Blake Griffin is now a senior editor at something called "The Players' Tribune," and he announced his journalistic presence with authority.

Here's Griffin on the immediate aftermath of the Donald Sterling scandal:

"For the next 48 hours, as we were trying to prepare for the end of a heated playoff series against Golden State, my phone did not stop vibrating. Everybody had an opinion on what we should do, what we should say. When I turned on the TV, media people were saying we should boycott the game. Now, that sounds great when you’re a talking head in a TV studio, but when you’re trying to get locked in for the biggest playoff series of your career, it’s not so easy. I was getting texts from people like, “Man, how can you guys go out there and play for Sterling after this?” Eventually, I just shut off my phone.

My feeling, right or wrong, was that we should shut it all out and go out and play for our fans, our families, and for each other. For people to ever think we were playing for Donald Sterling is comical. It wasn’t like before the tape came out, we were putting our hands in before every game and saying, “Okay guys, let’s go out and win one for Donald!”

Of course, he tried to spin it that way. After we beat Golden State, Sterling did the infamous interview with Anderson Cooper. Thankfully, commissioner Adam Silver had already taken quick action to ban him from the NBA for life. I was sitting in the trainer’s room getting treatment with Chris Paul during the Oklahoma City series when the interview came on the TV.

It’s only the preseason, so there’s no reason to push the panic button. But if you’ve watched the Clippers’ three preseason losses, you’ve seen things that might have you looking for it.

Some of the Clippers’ issues from last season have resurfaced – problems with defense and rebounding. And the small forward situation is somehow less settled than it was a year ago when the Clippers swapped Matt Barnes for Jared Dudley in the starting lineup.

Monday’s 102-89 loss to the Jazz in Utah highlighted a little of everything currently wrong with the Clippers (in addition to showcasing the biggest thing going right).

Like Portland did the night before, the Jazz splashed home open 3 after open 3, giving Doc Rivers a look at a problem he thought he solved.

The team struggled to defend the deep ball under former head coach Vinny Del Negro, and it was Rivers’ top defensive priority a year ago. The team responded, leading the league in 3-point defense last season, holding opponents to a league-best 33.2 percent from deep.

The 3-point shot is too easy, at least it looked like Sunday in Portland.

The Trail Blazers and Clippers traded shots from deep, but the points came easier and more often for Portland in a 119-114 victory over the Clippers.

The two teams shot 36-of-64 from deep, in a game that was largely out of the Clippers’ control.

The Clipper defense, a point of emphasis early in camp, was porous, with dribble penetration and ball movement leading to wide open looks for the Blazers, who were without All-Star guard Damian Lillard.

Blake Griffin, whose jumper looked so good in the opener, struggled from the field, and the team played from behind for most of the game. Jamal Crawford shot the Clippers back into contention early in the fourth, but even his 17 points in the final quarter weren’t enough.